Their Instant Baby

The same had not been true for Nick.

By the time he had found out what had happened, his fate had been sealed. His happy family life had come to an end. There had been no going back. And his heart and soul had turned to stone. Except where Lola and her family were concerned.

He loved them with every fiber of his being. Because he knew they were all the family he would ever have. He wasn’t going through the loss again.

But Amy Deveraux didn’t know that, because Lola hadn’t told her about Nick’s past. And that was the way Nick wanted it. He’d had enough pity to last him a lifetime. What he wanted now was a normal life, and any satisfaction his business dealings could bring him. That was it. That was all.

Unlike Amy Deveraux, who, according to Lola, was still looking for that special man who would turn her life around and make everything new and exciting and wonderful.

The kind of man he could never be again, no matter how much time elapsed.

“Chuck is going to be fine,” Nick continued, knowing he had to say something to reassure Amy and Dexter, who was still wailing, as they went into the nursery. Hoping a dry diaper would make Dexter feel better and stop crying, Nick set Dexter down on the changing table just as he had seen Lola do. Keeping one hand firmly on Dexter’s middle, Nick reached for a disposable diaper. Also as he had seen Lola do, he opened the clean diaper and slid it beneath Dexter. He ripped open the tabs, saw that Dexter was just wet, and with some difficulty removed the old diaper and dropped it into the plastic-lined diaper pail beside the bed. “Our military doctors are the best in the world. They’ll see that he will walk and even run again.”

“You don’t know that,” Amy protested quietly, her worry apparent. She cleaned Dexter’s diaper area with a baby wipe, and then sprinkled cornstarch powder on his lower half. “Sometimes families don’t get their happily-ever-afters, Nick.”

“But Lola and Chuck and Dexter will,” Nick said firmly, aware he had no way of promising that. But he also knew it was important the two of them think that way, just the same. Finished fastening the tabs, he picked up Dexter. To his relief, the diaper, with its cartoon figures on the front, stayed in place, albeit somewhat loosely. Nick turned the momentarily subdued Dexter around and saw smaller cartoon figures on his backside. “Well, that’s interesting,” he said. Before, the bigger cartoon figures had been on the back of Dexter’s diaper, the smaller ones on the front.

Amy peered at him from beneath a fringe of long dark eyelashes. “You realize you put that on backwards, don’t you?”

Nick shrugged and handed Dexter over to her. “I’m sure you’ll agree that’s the least of our problems right now.”

In fact, the way Nick saw it, his main problem was not going to be which side of the disposable diaper went where, but how he was going to survive a week or more in the company of Dexter’s other, very sexy and very beautiful godparent. Nick had been alone with Amy Deveraux for barely five minutes, and already he found himself wanting, quite badly, to take her to bed. Unusual, to say the least. These days when desire hit him, it was usually fleeting and short-lived. He had the feeling that would not be the case with Amy. No, he’d be remembering her pretty face and cloud of dark-mahogany hair for days and weeks to come. Not to mention those wide-set turquoise eyes, narrow elegant nose, high delicate cheekbones, soft luscious lips and cute stubborn chin.

Dexter squirmed and whimpered once again. Amy put him a little higher against her shoulder, so he was able to fuss and look over her shoulder at the room around them simultaneously. As she gently stroked the infant’s back with the palm of her hand, Amy looked at Nick curiously. “Do you have any idea when Dexter here last ate?”

Trying not to notice the way Amy’s cotton shirt had ridden up above the waistband of her khaki shorts, revealing several inches of flat, sexy abdomen and silky golden skin, Nick shook his head. Tearing his gaze from the slender but curvy figure visible beneath her loose-fitting knee-length shorts, he shifted his weight to ease the pressure at the front of his slacks and said, “He hasn’t had a bottle since I’ve been here, which is at least two hours.”

“Then it’s probably time for him to be fed again,” Amy decided. She walked toward the kitchen, her hips swaying so gently and provocatively as she moved it was all Nick could do not to groan out loud. Damn, but it was going to be a long week. Doing his best to return his mind to the task at hand, Nick said, “Lola left some breast milk in the door of the fridge. And there’s more in the freezer when that runs out.”

Amy handed Dexter to Nick, then moved quickly around the kitchen. Referring often to a handwritten set of instructions on the counter, she warmed Dexter’s bottle in the microwave, then gave it a good shake and tested the liquid on the back of her wrist. Satisfied, she took the bottle to Nick, who was leaning against the counter with Dexter cradled in one arm. He put the nipple to Dexter’s mouth. Dexter spit it out, turned his head away and cried even more loudly.

Nick and Amy’s subsequent tries to feed Dexter proved no more successful than the first. It didn’t seem to matter if they were sitting or standing, indoors or out. Rocking him or sitting perfectly still. Nick’s nephew was having none of it. Probably, Nick thought, because Dexter kept looking up, expecting to see his mommy’s face, and instead, saw him or Amy. Bottom line, as far as Dexter was concerned, it wasn’t the usual cozy breast-feeding experience he was accustomed to. And he was mighty ticked off about it. Ticked off enough to go on a hunger strike.

“Now what do we do?” Amy asked anxiously, turning her face to Nick.

Nick sighed. He could think of only one solution. “I guess there’s no helping it.” He looked at Amy seriously. “You’re going to have to take off your shirt.”

Chapter Two

Amy was holding Dexter when Nick made his suggestion, and now she stared at Nick, her pulse taking on a rapid jumping beat. “You’re joking, right?” He looked so handsome and self-assured, lounging against the back of the sofa with his jacket off, his tie loosened and his shirtsleeves rolled up to just beneath the elbow. So big and strong and undeniably sexy that all sorts of romantic thoughts and fantasies came to mind. Fantasies Amy knew she should not be having!

Nick shook his head, managing to look even more at home at his sister’s small country cottage. “Dexter is used to being fed at Lola’s breast.”

Heat began to center in Amy’s chest and move outward in mesmerizing waves. “Well, I can’t breast-feed him!” Amy glared at Nick. “I’m not pregnant or nursing. I don’t have any milk!”

Nick gave Amy an exceedingly patient look, apparently oblivious to the havoc he was causing in her. “I know that,” he said as he gave her an affable smile and somehow avoided looking at her breasts. “But I was thinking about something that was on a television show I produce—Nature’s Kingdom. Have you seen it?”

“Yes,” Amy said cautiously, aware that being closed in with Nick and the baby this way was putting all her senses in overdrive. Making her wonder what it would be like to have a husband and an infant in her life. She frowned and continued walking Dexter back and forth. “It’s wonderful.”

“Thanks.” His eyes lit with pleasure. “Anyway, they did a show on puppies who’d been separated from their mother. The new owners comforted the puppies by putting a hot-water bottle covered with a towel with the mother’s scent on it next to the puppies. They all snuggled up to it instinctively and it worked to comfort them. So,” Nick continued, still approaching the problem logically, “I suggest we try to mimic Dexter’s usual mealtime experience as best we can. Therefore—” Nick’s glance slid over her body, head to toe, warming Amy even further “—since your skin is obviously a lot smoother and silkier and your body a lot, uh, curvier than mine, I suggest you do the actual feeding, at least this first time, as we try to help him with the transition from his mom’s breast-feeding.” Nick eased Dexter from Amy’s arms and cuddled the squalling infant close. “Lola left a robe in the bathroom on a hook on the door.”

Aware her knees suddenly were as wobbly and uncertain as the rest of her, Amy eased past Nick and Dexter. “You really think this will work?”

Nick shrugged and continued holding Dexter awkwardly against his hard-muscled chest. “I wouldn’t have suggested it if I didn’t.”

Had they been anywhere else, doing anything else, Amy would have told Nick Everton exactly what he could do with his suggestion that she appear in a state of undress in his presence. But unable to bear Dexter’s hiccupy sobs a second longer, Amy slipped into the bathroom and did as Nick proposed, pulling off her lemon-yellow shirt and donning the robe. When she came back out, Nick was standing next to the rocking chair, Dexter in his arms. His eyes seemed to darken at the sight of her, and he motioned her to sit.

Her mouth dry, Amy did.

Nick leaned down and put Dexter in Amy’s arms. With fingers that trembled, Amy tried to discreetly open her robe. Given the way Dexter was still flailing his little limbs and crying, it was impossible to hold on to him and do that simultaneously.

Realizing she was attempting an impossible task, Nick rushed to the rescue. “Hang on. I’ll help you,” he said, regarding her matter-of-factly. He parted the terry-cloth lapels, revealing Amy’s throat and neck, and the uppermost curves of her breasts above the lacy transparent demi-bra. There was a moment of awareness between Nick and Amy as she noted he had just seen everything there was to see. Flushing, Amy turned her attention away from her tautening nipples and the rapacious gleam in Nick’s eyes, and back to the baby. Still attempting to soothe Dexter, she used both her hands to cuddle the infant close to her and settle his head against her chest.

Amy saw immediately that Nick had been right about one thing. As soon as Dexter’s head contacted the soft upper swell of Amy’s breast and the feel of her bare skin, he paused, blinking, his tears soaking through to her bra. And although he had stopped crying uncontrollably, Dexter still seemed confused.

“I don’t think he knows what to do,” Amy murmured.

“Then I’ll show him,” Nick said softly, gallantly ignoring the way Amy’s lacy demi-bra was now clinging wetly to her breast.

His touch both incredibly comforting and precise, Nick leaned down and guided the baby bottle to the infant’s mouth once again, murmuring soothingly all the while. Dexter blinked and looked up at Nick with his big, baby blues then sucked on the bottle half-heartedly, a suspicious look on his cherubic face. Nick backed away, still murmuring soothing words, and then three-month-old Dexter looked up at Amy again and began to drink from his bottle in earnest.

Amy, who’d been baby-sitting from the age of twelve, took it from there, while Nick grabbed his cell phone and laptop computer and stepped out to the screened-in porch to do a little business and check for messages. Not once did he turn back and look at Amy and Dexter, and for that, Amy was very glad. She was still unbearably aroused from the close, albeit meaningless contact with Nick, and she didn’t want to know if he felt the same potent physical attraction. Because Amy wasn’t looking for a fling. She was looking for a deeply satisfying relationship of the heart. One that led to marriage and children of her own. Lola had said little to Amy about her older brother except that she adored him and despaired that Nick’s future did not and never would include marriage and kids.

Which of course immediately struck him off Amy’s list, despite any attraction she felt for the sexy single man.

Twenty minutes later Dexter had finished the bottle of Lola’s breast milk and was sleeping soundly in Amy’s arms. Figuring she had better put him in his crib to finish out his nap while she could, Amy stood ever so slowly up with the baby in her arms and made her way cautiously to the nursery. She placed Dexter on his back in the crib, then went to change out of Lola’s robe and into the yellow shirt.

Apparently finished with his business calls and e-mail, Nick was waiting for her when she came back out to the living room, a worried look on his face. “What’s wrong?” Amy asked immediately, not really all that sure she wanted to hear the answer. She and Nick had been baby-sitting his nephew for only an hour or so, and already she was exhausted from simultaneously trying to do right by Dexter and fight her attraction to Nick. She couldn’t imagine how she would feel by the time Lola and Chuck returned, if this kind of emotional whirlwind kept up.

Nick inclined his head in the direction of the kitchen. “By my calculations, there’re only a few days’ worth of breast milk in Lola’s freezer.”

“We can buy formula at the grocery store and use that until Lola gets back.” Amy paused at the concern on his face. “You don’t think Dexter’s going to like it, do you.”

“Probably not, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. The more pressing question at the moment is—” he held her gaze “—how the three of us are going to manage in such tight quarters.”

Amy told herself it was tension causing her heart to pound and her mouth to go dry, not his proximity. “I think it’ll be okay,” she fibbed as she brushed past him and headed for the refrigerator. Ignoring his frank appraisal of her as they talked, Amy pulled out a cold can of vegetable juice and popped the top. Right about now, she could use a healthy pick-me-up. Anything to calm her nerves and make the overall situation seem more manageable. “After all—” Amy continued, trying not to feel self-conscious in her snug-fitting, long-sleeved yellow shirt with the Amy’s Complete Redecorating Service logo, khaki shorts, sneakers and socks “—it’s not like you and I are going to be with each other twenty-four hours a day.” She offered Nick a bracing smile. “I am still going to have to go to work.” Which would offer a lot of personal satisfaction, as well as distraction from Nick’s sexy presence. “And Lola said you are going to be conducting some business here in Charleston, too.”

Nick’s expression turned thoughtful as his gaze continued to drift over her hair, face and lips with disturbing thoroughness before returning to her eyes. “That’s right,” he said, moving closer, every inch of him the hard, indomitable male. “I have an idea for a new syndicated television show I want to pursue.”

Amy took another swallow of chilled vegetable juice. “And I have a decorating job that has to be done right away for my aunt Winnifred.” Amy was embarrassed to feel a little excess juice on the corners of her lips. She paused to wipe it off with her fingertips, damning the fact that Nick had noticed—and tracked—that movement, too. “So most likely, you’ll be here with Dexter while I’m off doing my thing,” Amy continued with an airy confidence she didn’t begin to feel, “and then I’ll be here with him while you’re off doing your thing.” During the day, they could rarely, if ever, cross paths, Amy reassured herself optimistically, as she took another long, bracing swallow of juice. If she was lucky, she continued bolstering herself firmly, and Nick’s work included some evening jaunts, the same would be true of the majority of their nights, as well.

“Actually, speaking of work…there’s something you could help me with,” Nick said, a hopeful expression on his face.

Amy’s brow furrowed at the abrupt change in Nick’s mood. She didn’t know anything about producing television shows. “What?” she asked him curiously, as she glanced into the utility area on the back porch to see if a load of wash was done. It wasn’t.

Nick flashed her a winning smile and focused on her flushed face and tousled hair. “Like getting me an introduction to your mother right away.”

NICK SAW AMY’S SMILE fade and her eyes go dark almost instantaneously. Then and there he knew he’d made a mistake. “My mother has an agent who handles queries,” Amy said.